farmers' institutes. 495 



To siimmarizo, the iiiiijortauce of improved live stocli becomes ap- 

 parent Avlien we realize its present condition and compare it with that 

 of other districts. We should encourage rather than discourage co-opera- 

 tion when possible. We should breed in line and pin our faith to the 

 pure-bred sire, and make him the base of all improvements. So tirm am 

 I in this belief that I huml)ly think that if while our last Legislature was 

 racking their brains framing a law to catch a few old men and boys for 

 harboring or using fish spears they had passed a law making it unlawful 

 to harbor or use a grade sire thej' would have passed a far more com- 

 mendable act. 



Next to the pure-bred sire in importance we should stick to one breed. 

 It is this trait, this stick-to-it-iveness, this bull dog tenacity that Sena- 

 tor Harris says in the Breeders' Gazette he would have us emulate and 

 possess. It is this trait he would like to see nurtured and cultivated in 

 every farm family. It is this that should dominate the work of the sire, 

 that he may hand do\Mi to the son a heritage of living organisms trained 

 by him in the way he should go. It is this that the son should learn td 

 appreciate to the full, and determine to make his guiding star in the life- 

 work before him. It is tliis. and this only, that can make the breeding 

 of animals a success and entitle it to rank as one of the most noble and 

 entranciugly interesting avocations of man. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



ROBERT MORRIS, SALEM, I»D. 



[Read before Borden Institute.] 

 Sacred history tells us that after the creation of the earth God made 

 the beasts of the field, after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and 

 everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, after which God 

 said let us make man. And it was so. So that sheep, as tliey were made 

 before man, must have been wandering upon the hills without a shep- 

 herd. The first successful occupation that we have an account of was 

 sheep husbandry. Able was a keeper of sheep. But Cain was a tiller 

 of the soil. It is true that Abie's father was put into the garden of 

 Eden to dress it and to keep it. But in that he proved a failure. He was 

 discharged. And was driven out. And sent forth to till the ground 

 from whence he Avas taken. A guard was placed at the east end of the 

 garden for fear he might return to his first and far more desirable situa- 

 tion. And the Lord had respect unto Able and his offering. But mito 

 Cain and his offering he had not respect. So his older brother made a 

 signal failure in his chosen undertaking, and a mark was set upon him. 

 So it is plain to see that the 3"ounger brother's was the first successful 

 occupation. * 



